By Olatunbosun Obafemi
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, on Thursday announced the approval of a highly controversial settlement project in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a move critics say will deal a fatal blow to hopes for a future Palestinian state.
The plan focuses on E1, a strategic tract of land east of Jerusalem that, if developed, would effectively bisect the West Bank, isolating its southern region from the center and north. Palestinians, rights groups, and much of the international community view this as a decisive step toward cementing permanent Israeli control over the territory.
“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich declared at a ceremony, warning countries planning to recognize Palestinian statehood — including Australia, Britain, France, and Canada — that Israel’s “answer will be on the ground.”
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment on Thursday, he has supported the E1 expansion in the past. The project, shelved for over two decades due to U.S. pressure, is now poised for final approval on August 20 after the planning committee rejected all petitions to block it earlier this month. If bureaucratic steps proceed swiftly, infrastructure work could begin within months, with housing construction starting in about a year.
Palestinian officials blasted the decision. “It is a colonial, expansionist, and racist move… aimed at undermining any possibility of a Palestinian state and fragmenting the West Bank,” said Ahmed al Deek, political adviser to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. Rights group Peace Now called the plan “deadly” for Israel’s future and a guarantee of “many more years of bloodshed.”
The announcement comes as tensions escalate in the West Bank, where more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live alongside Palestinians in territories captured in 1967. International law deems such settlements illegal, but Israel disputes this, claiming the West Bank as “disputed territory” subject to negotiations.
Smotrich, a former settler leader, has vowed to double the settler population. Analysts warn the E1 development could permanently derail any two-state solution, as the world’s focus remains fixed on the war in Gaza.
